Singapore Police Force (SPF) alerts members of the public to a variant of the impersonation of police officer scams, involving a fake SPF website.
The police stated that victims typically receive calls from scammers claiming that the victims have excessively large amounts of money in their bank accounts, and are suspected of being involved in criminal activities such as money laundering.
The victims are then given a link to a website that bears resemblance to the SPF website and asked to follow the instructions to provide confidential information such as credit card details and internet banking credentials, purportedly for investigation purposes.
However, the police stressed that it is actually a phishing site in disguise, designed to extract useful personal information and privileged banking details of unsuspecting victims, resulting in extensive monetary losses in most reported cases.
The screenshots below show the fake “E-Services” pages where such illicit phishing activities were perpetrated.
It advised members of the public to take the following precautions when they receive unsolicited calls, especially from unknown parties:
- Ignore the calls. Scammers may use Caller ID spoofing technology to mask the actual phone number and display a different number. Calls that appear to be from a local number may not actually be made from Singapore. If you receive a suspicious call from a local number, hang up, wait five minutes, then call the number back to check the validity of the request.
- Ignore instructions to remit or transfer money. No government agency will inform you to make a payment through a telephone call, especially to a third party’s bank account.
- Refrain from giving out personal information and bank details, whether on the website or to callers over the phone. Personal information and bank details such as internet bank account usernames and passwords, OTP codes from tokens, are useful to criminals.
- If you have information related to such crimes or if you are in doubt, please call the Police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit the information online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. Please dial ‘999’ if you require urgent Police assistance.
The police then noted that to seek scam-related advice, members of the public may call the anti-scam helpline at 1800-722-6688. They are also advised to share this advisory with family and friends to prevent them from being the next scam victim.
